Mobile Phone Myths
There is an email travelling the world at the moment which goes something like this:
4 THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR MOBILE PHONE COULD DO
It then lists four emergencies, which, it claims, can be solved with a mobile phone and a little knowledge.
FIRST: The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.
Well, first of all, don’t try it out. You will be connected to an emergency number and you will be wasting the time of valuable professional help. But do remember it. It will work in most countries of the world.
SECOND: Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other ‘remote’ for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
I tried this and it works fine. I just unlocked my car and locked it again with a mobile phone.
THIRD: Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.
This is absolute nonsense. The code *3370# is concerned with the sound quality of the phone. There is no way around a flat battery.
FOURTH: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
Your mobile network will be able to do this as long as you can give them the 15 digit serial number of the handset.
The email I received also had this snippet of nonsense attached:
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse. For example, if your pin number is 1234, then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location. This information was recently broadcast on CTV by Crime Stoppers however it is seldom used because people just don’t know about it. Please pass this along to everyone.
Actually, please don’t pass this info along to anyone. If you enter your pin number in reverse the machine will register it is the wrong PIN. It will not notify the police. You have to telephone an emergency number to do that.
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I saw this email and originally thought the whole thing was a load of nonsense. Nice to know that part of it had some fact base. Only problem is for the emergency number how can you check which country it works for without bothering or wasting the time of emergency services!! Anyway thanks for clearing some of that up!
Thanks great post that helped me out.
It is up to the person if he or she would like to believe it or try it out. Doing a little research on things like these would always be advantageous.
Thanks for the tips…i do hope they do come in handy in critical situations…i din know all the impt numbers before i read this…anyway….thanks n cheers
I am so glad I read about the 112 tip. I never heard of that before. Thanks!
Thanks for these, it was a good read! Good to know that the 112 one is correct but it’s a shame about the PPIN backwards tip not being true – sounds like it could be useful!
I didnt know about the 112 world wide! About the ATM is just stuppid if you belive that!, funny to read
Great post!!! I can’t wait untill a friend of me is back from work, because we’re going to unlock his car with two cellphones:-) I am sooo exited. I hope this will work for us too:-) Thanks for posting this.- Ray J
Glad you raised these points, but it’s a good idea to provide sources in your post so people can confirm these things (noted the Wikipedia link).
Thanks.